18 PECKED, GROUND AND POLISHED STONE. 



United States. They arc sharp-edged and highly polished, and were evidently 

 used for cutting purposes (Fig. 56 represents one of these diminutive hema 

 tite tools, which was found in Ohio). A cross section parallel with the 

 cutting edge of a North American celt presents in general a roundish or oval 

 outline; but some specimens are four-sided, insomuch that a section would 

 resemble a rectangle with sharp or rounded angles and more or less convex 

 sides (Fig. 57, greenstone, Indiana). The cutting edges, nearly always 

 ground from both sides, are usually convex, and rarely straight. The butt- 

 ends generally exhibit more or less rounded contours (Fig. 58, syenite, 

 Illinois ; Fig. 59, greenstone, Tennessee) ; but in some specimens the butt 

 tapers and terminates in a blunt point (Fig. GO, indurated chlorite slate, 

 Tennessee, mound). Some have expanding cutting edges (Fig. 61, Louisiana). 

 The butts of many celts are much battered, as though the implements had 

 been employed in connection with mallets for splitting wood, etc. ; others bear 

 the traces of having been inserted in shafts to serve as axes or adzes. In rare 

 cases the extremity opposite the edge terminates in a sort of a handle (Fig. 

 62, greenstone, North Carolina). A few specimens of the collection have a 

 cutting edge at each end. 



2, Chisels, Wedge-shaped implements of elongated form and compara 

 tively small size have been classed as chisels, and doubtless were used as such. 

 It does not seem that they are abundant. Several specimens of the collec 

 tion have a round circumference and a greater diameter in the middle or at 

 the blunt end than at the working edge. These implements, which chiefly 

 consist of greenstone, may be considered as typical, having been found in 

 Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and Connecticut (Fig. 63, diorite, Ohio). Others are 

 four-sided (Fig. 64, lydite, New York), or flat with rounded smaller sides, 

 and a few specimens of yellow or brownish jasper exhibit in part the original 

 chipping, being only superficially ground. They might be taken for Danish 

 or North German productions of the stone age. Some chisels have Avorking 

 edges at both ends. A specimen of the collection marked &quot;ice-chisel&quot; (Fig. 

 65, basaltic material, Unalaska Island) presents a peculiar shape, terminating 

 in a sort of handle, which is, however, almost too short for being conveniently 

 grasped. There is a possibility that the implement was hafted. (Compare: 

 Nilsson, &quot; Stone Age,&quot; Plate VI, Fig. 135). 



3, Gouges. They generally consist of materials similar to those of which 

 celts are made; but they occur in the United States far less frequently than 

 the latter, and appear to be chiefly confined to the Atlantic States. It is sup 

 posed that they were employed, besides other uses, in the manufacture of 

 wooden canoes and mortars, which the aborigines hollowed out with the assist 

 ance of fire. The gouges were well adapted, by their shape, for removing the 

 charred portions of the wood. These implements vary in length from three 

 inches to a foot. In some the concavity is confined to the lower part (Fig. 



